WARSAW — Kosciusko County Council on Thursday held off — for now — on the idea of eliminating property taxes on most mobile homes.

The debate came down to an issue of fairness versus an issue of simple math.

[caption id="attachment_95588" align="alignright" width="300"] From left Kosciusko County Assessor Gail Chapman and County Treasurer Michelle Puckett address county council on Thursday night. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.[/caption]

The ordinance would exempt mobile home personal property assessments. The change would not affect mobile homes assessed as real estate.

Unlike most property tax collections, the county is regularly unable to collect about 35 percent of the mobile home taxes, in part because the homes are often sold and relocated. On top of that, some mobile homeowners just ignore the bills.

Even if collection efforts are made, most of those efforts on delinquent taxes lapse after ten years.

At the same time, the county spends a large amount of money and time trying to collect those taxes.

The proposal to eliminate the tax was supported by county treasurer Michelle Puckett and county Assessor Gail Chapman.

"The revenue loss is .002 — again, these revenues are just bonus dollars that you can't really anticipate collecting ... It's really if we do, we do, if we don't, we don't," Puckett said.

Chapman said they employ four people who spend four or five months per year working to collect mobile home taxes.

On the other hand, taxing units, such as schools and libraries would lose out on those tax revenues if no money is collected.

County Council President Mike Long had previously urged the pubic and taxing units to voice their opinions on the issue, but that did not materialize at Thursday’s meeting. Only two people stepped forward to speak. One was Rachael Rhoades, a Republican candidate for county council who opposed the idea, as well as one member of the public.

Long was a bit miffed at the apparent lack of interest from the public on the matter.

Councilman Dave Wolkins said he thinks the public still might have an interest if the county reconsiders.

Chapman warned that if they don't end the policy, she'll have to hire another person at the cost of some $44,000 to continue assessment work on personal property mobile homes.

The total cost between the assessor's office and the treasurer's office needed in regard to mobile home tax collections — everything from supplies to wages to postal expenses — is more than $134,000.

If the county collected all property taxes from mobile homes, the total would be around $700,000, but only about $454,000 was collected in 2023.

Of that money, the county received $69,880. Other big recipients in 2023 were Warsaw Community Schools ($130,166), Wawasee Schools ($62,883), and Warsaw Community Public Library ($7,336).

State lawmakers passed legislation recently that allows counties to opt out of mobile home tax collections as personal property (rather than real estate).

Puckett said the biggest counties are sticking with collections while many smaller counties are opting to cease efforts.

Kosciusko County is believed to have a large number of mobile homes compared to other counties.

Puckett pointed out that if they eliminated the tax, it would be hard to go back and begin collecting again because records would no longer be updated.

Cirilieo proposed the council hold off on the vote until they learn more and hear from other taxing units.

The vote on Ciriello's motion was 4-2. Those supporting the motion included Long, Wolkins, Kathy Groninger and Ciriello. Those opposed were Truex and Kimberly Cates.

The county auditor's office will send out a notice to taxing units asking for input, but the council declined to set a date for when it would reconsider.

Truex reacted to the move.

"I think you're delaying it for no reason because the information is not going to change," she said.

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WARSAW — Kosciusko County Assessor Gail Chapman requested the county commissioners end a contract with Lexur Appraisal Services after the company failed to live up to expectations.

Chapman explained to the commissioners, “Darby Davis headed up our commercial-industrial (assessment) department for about 28 years. She retired, and in ’22, that department was turned over to two other ladies to head it up. In the middle of 2022, the one lady retired and the other lady determined that it was too stressful of a job and she did not want to do it.”

At that point, the assessor’s office had to look to contracting the services out for the commercial-industrial part of the office’s work. In September 2022, a contract was signed with Lexur Appraisal Services - now part of Vision Government Solutions - to do the majority of the assessor’s office commercial-industrial work.

“I found out that, at the beginning of the year ... that they were not exactly transparent with me on the person they chose to do our field work,” Chapman said.

“It took me three months before someone finally admitted to me that she had no idea how to do data entry on our INcama system, which is one of the critical aspects of our work for everything we do.”

Chapman attempted to get the woman training, but had no way of accomplishing that. “Our XSoft vendor (is) in direct competition with (Vision), which I did not realize that either until part way through the year,” she said.

Vision Government Solutions is a company based out of Ohio with about 300 employees that is trying to edge its way into Indiana and become a competitor with XSoft, who the county has used for more than 10 years, Chapman said.

“So, when I realized that no work was getting done, I contacted the vice president of Lexur and he immediately released the lady that was doing our work and assigned a gentleman that is four hours away in southern Indiana. So, in the middle of all of this in October, he had all the work to catch up on, which was all of our commercial reassessment, and pretty much all of our building permit construction work. So, that work started and, basically, - I’m going to say it as politely and respectfully as I can - nobody can accomplish that much work in the amount of time that it was done,” Chapman said.

She started reviewing the work and seeing what had been done. She found that million-dollar buildings had not been picked up and buildings that were assessed on the wrong parcel.
“At that point in time, I decided that was the end of my desire to work with this company. They’re not giving us the product that they promised. They’re not giving me the quality of work that I expect as the assessor and that our office has always given to this county,” she said.

Chapman proposed that the commissioners end the contract with Lexur at the end of this year. It is a three-year contract, but there is a clause in the contract that allows either party to end the contract at any time for any reason.

The cost of the contract is $57,800 for year one; $59,500 for year two; and $61,300 for year three. This is the first year of the contract, and Chapman said after the meeting that she’s paid Lexur $50,000 so far this year.

Explaining her second proposal to the commissioners, Chapman said, “With training, I have a lady in my office (Jennifer Spyres) who has offered to head up our commercial-industrial department.” Spyres has worked in the assessor’s office going on six years, so Chapman said Spyres is well-versed with all of the assessor’s office operations and how the work is done. “She would need additional training to basically learn the ins and outs of going out and picking up new construction, the questions to ask, what to look for. And then data entry on new commercial, and then the trending portion, which is probably the most critical part of our work.”

She asked the commissioners to allow her to move the assessor’s office commercial-industrial work back into the office at the start of 2024 with training. “I will bring that proposal to you next month on what that’s going to entail,” Chapman said.

Commissioner Cary Groninger asked Chapman if Spyres would be up to speed to start in January. Chapman replied that she’s already started and the office has been working on it for a while “because we’ve known most of the year that we were going to have problems.”

Chapman said there’s still commercial work that they will have to go out and pick up because it was not done. Spyres is already working on it.

“But I believe that, to do it, to know all the ins and outs of how to pick up commercial, I believe that’s going to require, I’m going to say at least a year of training. And the trending portion absolutely has to require training,” she said.

Groninger said he loved bringing it back in-house, but was concerned about getting it up to speed to meet all the deadlines and goals without some sort of third-party supplemental help.

“I know these are tough decisions that nobody likes to make to end a contract and end a relationship with an organization, but these are critical to the tax revenues of Kosciusko County, so we’ve got to right the ship,” he said.

Chapman said trending has to start by January in order to get done by March 1. There are state deadlines that have to be met, they can’t be late and she said they never have been. The trending will have to start immediately after Christmas in order it to be completed by the deadline.

Groninger asked if there were funds budgeted for the additional training. Chapman said in 2024, the budget has about $80,000 for contractual services, which might cover the training portion but not the employee’s salary to move to supervisor of the commercial department.

Groninger made a motion to end the contract with Lexur and let Chapman move commercial-industrial assessment back in-house. The motion passed 3-0.

Commissioner Brad Jackson told Chapman if she sees it’s not working to come back to the commissioners and they’ll work to get it done.

“My opinion is that the best way to control quality and the output is to have it in-office. We don’t have anyone at this point who can answer questions for taxpayers on commercial. It just needs to come back in-office where we can control it,” she said.

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WARSAW -- By joining with three other counties on the cost for aerial photos of the counties, Kosciusko County saves more money than if they had it done by themselves.

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WARSAW -- Tax experts are warning that residential property owners in Kosciusko County and across the state will likely face some sticker shock in the next few weeks when they receive property tax bills.

The housing market boom two years ago sent home prices soaring with the average home value rising nearly 16 percent, according to data being distributed by the Indiana Association of Counties.

County Auditor Rhonda Helser and County Assessor Gail Chapman met with News Now Warsaw Thursday and warned that residential markets outpaced commercial and farm properties, which means homeowners will pay a bigger share of the bill.

The COVID pandemic, the recession and the recovery in 2020 and 2021 created conditions for "extraordinary changes" in assessments and tax bills in "pay-2023," according to a statewide report provided by Helser

Helser said she wanted to get the word out before tax bills start arriving.

Chapman said she's looking at a 16 percent hike on her own home.

It’s too late to appeal this year’s tax bill, but property owners can prepare to appeal the upcoming assessment, which will be issued in the coming weeks.

On the other hand, homeowners have also seen the values of their homes rise dramatically, Chapman said.

"I think people who have lived in their homes for 20-30 years ... would probably be shocked to know what they could actually list it for and sell it for," Chapman said.

"I know they're not going to be happy about the tax amount. I'm not either. Mine went up 16 percent. But I can look at my assessed value and know for sure that I could sell it for that amount or a little bit more," she said.

On a related note, Chapman and Helser both urged homeowners to update the county when they make significant changes to their property. In many cases, they said, people will tear down a garage or even a house and don't report it and then still end up receiving tax bills that don't reflect their existing situation.

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